Antje Vollmer
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Antje Vollmer (; 31 May 194315 March 2023) was a German
Protestant theologian Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, academic teacher and politician of the
Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (, ), often simply referred to as Greens (, ), is a Green (politics), green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (formed in East Ger ...
. She became a member of the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
in 1983 when the Greens first entered the West German parliament, before joining the party in 1985. From 1994 to 2005, she was Vice President of the Bundestag, the first Green in the position. She was a
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
.


Education and early career

Vollmer was born in
Lübbecke Lübbecke (; ) is a town in northeast North Rhine-Westphalia in north Germany. This former county town lies on the northern slopes of the Wiehen Hills (''Wiehengebirge'') and has around 26,000 inhabitants. The town is part of district of Minden- ...
(
Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...
). Her parents ran a textile shop which they later had to close. After graduating from Wittekind-Gymnasium Lübbecke in 1962, she studied Protestant theology in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
,
Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...
, and Paris, completing her first theological exam in 1968, her second in 1971, and receiving her doctorate in 1973. From 1969 to 1971, she was a research assistant at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin. In 1971, she started a postgraduate course in adult education, which she completed in 1975. From 1971 to 1974, she worked as a pastor in Berlin-
Wedding A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...
, a problematic district at the time. From 1976 to 1982, she was an instructor in adult education at the of the
Bethel Foundation The Bethel Foundation, officially the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel ( as of 2009, previously ''v. Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel'') is a diaconal (i.e. Protestant charitable) psychiatric hospital in Bethel, formerly a town, today a neigh ...
in
Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...
; she collaborated with the local Protestant and Catholic organisations for rural young people (''Landjugend''), and experienced the beginning of the ecological movement. She wrote a book related to the attempt to assassinate Hitler in the
20 July plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...
together with Lars-Broder Keil, ''Stauffenbergs Gefährten: Das Schicksal der unbekannten Verschwörer'' ("
Stauffenberg The Schenk von Stauffenberg family is a Roman Catholic ''Uradel'' German noble family from Swabia, Germany. The family's best-known recent member was Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – the key figure in 20 July plot in 1944 to a ...
's companions: The fate of the unknown conspirators"), which was published in 2013.


Political career

In the 1970s, Vollmer was politically active in the Anti-Imperialist League (), close to the
Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...
KPD/AO, but did not join the party. They were activists against the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. She became a member of the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
in 1983 on the ticket of the Green Party, although she was not a party member. In 1985, she joined the Greens. In 1984, she was elected to the party's board in parliament, as one of three women. In 1985, she initiated a dialogue of the state and prisoners of the
Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...
. Within the party, she called in "Grüner Aufbruch" for a bridge between the "Realos" and "Fundis", those adjusting to the realities of possible developments, and fundamental thinkers. Due to the party principle of ''rotation'' she had to give up the parliamentary seat in 1985, but was reelected in
1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...
and again in
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
,
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, and
2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
. In November 1994, Vollmer was the first politician of the Green Party to be elected into the
Presidium of the Bundestag The Presidium of the Bundestag is responsible for the routine administration of the Bundestag, including its clerical and research activities. The presidium consists of the President of the Bundestag and varying number of Vice Presidents, curren ...
. She remained vice president of the Bundestag until the 2005 elections, at which point, she did not run for re-election.


Later life

In 2009, Vollmer was awarded the Mercator Visiting Professorship for Political Management at the Universität Essen-Duisburg's NRW School of Governance. She gave both seminars and lectures at the university. Vollmer was one of the first signatories of an open letter on the German position on the Russo-Ukrainian War, published in the magazine '' EMMA'' in April 2022, which called on Chancellor
Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...
to not supply
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
with offensive weapons during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
and to do everything he could to end the war, in order to prevent an escalation of the conflict into "a
third world war World War III, also known as the Third World War, is a hypothetical future global conflict subsequent to World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). It is widely predicted that such a war would involve all of the great powers, l ...
".


Personal life

In 1979, Vollmer gave birth to a son, Johann, whom she raised as a single mother. Vollmer died on 15 March 2023, at age 79.
Katrin Göring-Eckardt Katrin Dagmar Göring-Eckardt ( Eckardt; 3 May 1966) is a German politician of the German Green Party (officially known as Alliance 90/The Greens). Starting her political activity in the now-former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in th ...
, vice president of the Bundestag then, said of Vollmer, "She was there from the beginning and fought through much of what we benefit from today. And she kept her own head, unbending!" ("Sie war von Beginn an dabei und hat Vieles von dem durchgekämpft, wovon wir heute profitieren. Und sie hat ihren eigenen Kopf behalten, unbeugsam!)


Awards

Source: * 1989
Carl von Ossietzky Medal The (ILMR) has awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal since 1962. The league has honored personalities, initiatives or organizations who have worked with civil courage and outstanding commitment to the realization of human rights annually since 1962 ...
* 1996 Cicero Speaker Prize * 1997 Charles University Medal in Prague * 1998
Hannah Arendt Prize The Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought () is a prize awarded to individuals representing the tradition of political theorist Hannah Arendt, especially in regard to totalitarianism. It was instituted by the German Heinrich Böll Foundation ...
* 1998 Art Prize for German-Czech Understanding * 2003
Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk () is an order (decoration), Order of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1990 after the Velvet Revolution, and re-established in 1994 (following the dissolution of Czechosl ...
of the Czech Republic * 2005 Commander's Cross of the
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...


Publications

* * * * * * * * *


Dissertation

*


References


Further reading

*


External links

*
Antje Vollmer
(in German)
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

Antje Vollmer
(in German) fembio.org *

(in German) in: ''
konkret has been the name of two German magazines. was originally the name of a magazine established by Klaus Rainer Röhl in 1957, that was an influential magazine on the German political left in the 1960s. The magazine was dissolved in 1973 as a c ...
'', January 1996. * Marianne Bäumler:
Erlebte Geschichten mit Antje Vollmer
', in the series ''Erlebte Geschichten'' of
WDR 5 WDR 5 is a German public radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of German ...
, 1 January 2013 (podcast). {{DEFAULTSORT:Vollmer, Antje 1943 births 2023 deaths People from Lübbecke Alliance 90/The Greens politicians Members of the Bundestag for Hesse Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998 Aufstehen Studienstiftung alumni Female members of the Bundestag 20th-century German women politicians 21st-century German women politicians Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Vice presidents of the Bundestag